Since I was a little girl I’ve tried to disguise my nerdiness. Sure, I was studious in school and I didn’t mind that people thought of me as nothing more than this; the high school hierarchy is pretty savage after all. But it wasn’t studying and getting good grades that made me happy. What had really stolen my heart, and subsequently any spare moment I had between being at school and studying, was video games. It started when I was about 4 years old; I recall watching my mum and my two older sisters play Bubble Bobble and Duck Hunt on the NES in fascination. A year or two on, and my oldest sister started playing Donkey Kong Country and Diddy Kong racing. I was a little sharper with age, so she let me join in. That lit the fuse and I was hooked. This was better than anything I had experienced from sitting in front of the TV, too restless to ever keep my attention on anything for long.

Over the years this love grew. First it was the Nintendo DS; I got my shiny new silver handheld (which now looks like a brick) just a few months after it was released and I was proud of it. The quality of games and the price tag was disgusting when you look at what you can get for free on the app store now, but it was love. When this couldn’t handle the graphics requirements of the games I really wanted to play, I got a PS2. That was my golden age of gaming. Primary school Christie had so much spare time that I envy her now; if only I could get home at 3pm and spend the entire night playing Kingdom Hearts until bed.

Once I hit high school my Xbox 360 was practically my only friend. I still treasure the hours I spent completing every quest in every RPG I played, games can get you through some pretty dark times. Since then the collection has grown to pretty much every console from the last 10 years, with the exception of the Wii U.

Aside from gaming, I’m a bit of a hobbyist. When I was younger I read books at an alarming rate but these days I’m preoccupied by so many things that I don’t finish as many. I love reading never the less; it’s an extension of my escapism. I spend a good portion of my time binge watching TV shows (historical fiction is my favourite), watching YouTube videos, writing, playing around with makeup, baking, sewing (cosplays could be on the horizon) and walking my dog Taco.

Over the years my personality has developed along with my interests. Where I once shied away from anyone knowing my secret pastimes—putting my head down when I heard the boys in class talking about gravity-defying horses in Skyrim—I now see nothing to hide. At uni it seems that the feature people remember about me, if nothing else, is that I’m that girl who plays games. I guess it comes with the territory when you’re studying in a rather academic writing and editing degree. My dream of being a games journalist differs a little from that of most literary writers who study alongside me.

Which brings us to why I’ve started this blog: I’ve been meaning to do this for about two years now. It didn’t even occur to me until I was in year 12 and pondering what to do with my gap year. I didn’t have the courage until this year, when I received an onslaught of ‘Do you have a blog?’ questions whenever I told anyone I like to write game reviews. And now, there are no excuses left. So here it is.

I collect a ridiculous number of things, including but not limited to: games, books, Black Milk clothing, anything Tolkien related, historical TV series and anything with the shape or pattern of a dachshund. So if you wondered about my URL name, there’s the answer.

My intention for this blog is to post about my interests and opinions—yes, there will be game reviews—thus coming out of the closet, so to speak.

Side note: I’d like to thank my lovely boyfriend for doing the artwork for my banner. You can find his art on Instagram @etrinarch_art